Reluctant Retailer

I guess I'm the starving artist type on SL. I don't really starve with a premium membership. I spend most of my L to upload textures.

I told myself I did not want to get into selling. My time on SL was to be creative and have fun. I've worked in retailing. I also had a store on Neopets. Neither were rewarding experiences.

Still, I'd like my stuff to see the light of day. I think I am going to at least spare the prims involved with rezzing a magic box on my back porch.

Is there any other way I can give away/sell my merchandise without retailing taking over my second life?

Really, putting stuff for sale takes little or no effort. Getting people to buy it is another story. (>_<

If you just want it 'out there'... Just go ahead and do that. A Magic Box, OnRez server, or some boxes set for sale work just fine. That's kinda how I operate my store. Most of my time is spent socializing, and once in a while I'll mash some prims together. If my prim mess looks like something I want to put out there... I'll box it and set it up in my store. That's all. (^_^)

You really don't have to labor over the sale of your items unless you are under pressure to earn monies out of it. (^_^)y

I feel like you do, Iyoba.

I got to the point in SL where I wanted to earn lindens in world for my spending money rather than purchasing them. I LOVE teaching so that was my most obvious route to do so. I was accepted into the school of my choice, went through the training/mentoring process, and just as I began teaching there on my own, the school closed.

Selling a few items I learned to build on SLexchange and in a yard sale I had encouraged me to improve on my building/scripting skills and little by little I added items to SLexchange and later OnRez. I finally decided I wanted to open a small, "cozy" little shop - the type of store I most enjoy - where I like to hang out instead of just "shop."

I went premium, purchased a 512 sqm parcel for that purpose, then got excited about all the ideas in the Advice on Sales thread and kind of went overboard (for me). The result was the fun went out of SL and I felt "under the gun" to produce, market, produce, market, etc.

I've now scaled back to my original plan, sold off two parcels I purchased to make my tier more manageable and am concentrating more on developing classes to teach. Using events (such as classes) to attract people to one's business is a great marketing tool; however, I'm turning that around - I'm planning to use my small shop to attract people to my classes.

So, definitely, there is a way to have fun creating, offering it to the SL population, but not letting it overtake your SL.

Wah... I had a much more laid back approach... I had a hard time keeping up with everyone in that thread because it was such a rush of action. In the end, I'm still sticking with my base-tier 512 parcel and putting up whatever I put up with no real pressure to market. (^_^)

Sure, I ~would~ like to see sales, but not to the point of taking away the fun that makes up SL for me. (>_<

Try setting up Affiliate vending system. Let others sale your product for percentage

If you don't let the sales side of things take over, there's no reason it can't be fun. I spend about 95% of my time in SL making things I sell, because I found something that I love doing. The moment it becomes a chore, I step away. The moment it becomes more of a job than fun, I won't do it.

Another solution if you want people to see them and don't care if they buy them try seting up a viewing gallery, if you are looking to make some supplemental L$ you can always set them to no copy/no modify and set the pictures/art to sell copies, if people like it they can buy it for a token amount. If they don't or are not willing to pay well no loss because your original goal of getting them out is still achieved.

This is what a friend of mine has done and now she is in several other galleries to.

Business and consumerism stuff in SL really bugs me and at times really made me feel like a failure on personal level as a Artist.
And at certain points I have actively pursued the business aspect of creating and selling content but my experience is often most people don't see, want or will buy content for even zero when I have made it available.
There few things I have put up onrez, few vendors here and there but its not my focus when I am in SL because it just gets too stressful if that is my only focus.
Yet understand you wanting to see others your art work and feelings associated with spending lot of time creating things that you want others to notice.
My suggestion create a blog, show case your favorite creations, or anything that is important around your creative process that you can share with friends and those who are interested, keep your content creation cost low, focus on the things you enjoy and if you got space to set up gallery or vendors use Onrez they have vendors while Xstreet doesn't yet.
From personal experience don't expect to much either way from your content, do it because you love it, and want to share it, not because you hope to gain something else.
There been times I have lost perspective and spent way more then I should here on my canvas and literally had no money in first life because of it, don't spend money here be it on uploads or whatever unless you can spare it. Get a stand alone Sim it's free to test textures and for builds you're not able to do in SL. Their is things not working right now in Stand alone sims i.e poses, animations, scripts not working but for basic land, texture, prim, clothing and space with lots of prims its affordable alternative then doing it in SL.
Only upload finished textures you're ready to share in SL. If you're like me constantly doing texture related work having place to test, see the textures in SL like place for free will save you numerous dollars.

Thanks for the advice. Since was already registered with XLS Street, I stayed with them. They do have a vendor in beta and getting items to market, especially groups of items takes time anyway because you need a montage photo and a good place for a photo shoot. You need to photograph shoes on firm ground. I put Iyoba on a stone wall for the shoe shots.

I have a question: When packaging up prim based clothes (which have permissions of course) should one also include a posing stand or posing stool as part of the package? I know this is a dumb question. I hope no one has asked it before.

Offer the pose stand separately as a freebie. Most people already have one..... hundred. (=_=) And, for those who don't, it's a service. (^_^)y

Everyone different size so when dealing with prims they need at least modify rights.
If you don't want item transferred then copy and modify is good but they is a small chance
Yet if you mark item as transfer there is strong change someone going to want to resell item in yard sale,etc. that why if you do best to not make it copyable. If they want they can try to sell at least the one item, but numerous.
If you're a texture artist though most people who are buying textures will only buy full permissions, because they don't work right without full rights and once they own it you can't really restrict what they do with it, dcma or not.
With prims modify item if they can get one of those copybot devices they can change the permissions and ownership to themselves but majority don't have access to something like.
Textures there is other ways to snatch things. If they really want your items without buying or owning it there is ways if you're concerned about theft.
There is no 100 percent way to be safe, but most likely unless you're exceptional or products are in high demand majority won't even notice your products to want to steal and resell from my own personal experience.

Personally, I wouldn't include one in the box. If a happy shopper buys 6 items from you, they'll have 6 posing stands. I'd suggest adding one to your vendor and, if required, they can buy it for free.

For this, I've included a notecard in the box explaining how to fit the clothes to your body (resizing, repositioning, etc.). In the notecard I included pics and a posing stand. If the buyer wants to, he/she just need do click the posing in the note and it will be copyed to the inventory.

If you're scripting prim clothing for resizing or any other purpose, why not add a 'Pose' option to the menu?

Apart from saving on Inventory issues, it would allow the wearer to do adjustments ecen in places where they can't rezz a stand.